(a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates, in general, to a device or tool and techniques for stimulating innovation and exercising fundamental thinking and communication skills. More particularly, the invention is a game using randomly selected images in the telling of a randomly predetermined type of story. Even more particularly, the invention involves a particularly constructed story telling game, a novel and unique receptacle for housing the game components, and the manner and technique of play. In a still more particular invention, there is provided a perpetual calendar of unique construction which can be used either as a game component or calendar, or both, as desired.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
The use of word and image stimuli in fostering verbalization and in the development and telling of stories is well known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,379,871, which issued May 31, 1921 to William D. McGuire, Jr., discloses a set of cards each having depicted thereon a scene, an object or descriptive matter used as a device not only for entertainment but also to develop the faculties of imagination and judgment. The cards have as an object the provision of a game or puzzle, the solution of which requires the development of a plot, theme or story. Accompanying the set of cards is a printed sheet suggesting the theme of the story or plot presented in the picture play depicted on the cards. In play, the players know in advance the title for the particular set of cards selected and will have a synopsis giving the theme of the story or picture play. All the cards in the set are dealt out to the several players. The person having the first card, which might be designated as such, makes the first play by placing the card face up on the playing table. The next player has to either produce the next card in the sequence of the story or else answer "I pass", as is usual in playing card games. As disclosed in the patent, a key can be provided with the card set giving the proper sequence of the cards in order to portray the story or play.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,209, a game is disclosed which is used in psychological testing and therapy. This game comprises two different sets of cards. On each card in each set there is provided a plurality of words. The words on the cards in one set all tend to evoke the same primary emotions. And the words on each card in the other set of cards tend to evoke different primary emotions. The words on the cards are used as a jumping off point for story telling, after a particular set of cards is randomly selected by a player. The player receives an award of two gold stars if he successfully tells a story. The number of gold stars that a player receives may determine the winner in any playing session, or, as disclosed in the patent, the gold stars can be turned in for other awards.
A number of different word games are disclosed in A GAMUT OF GAMES, Pantheon Books, New York, N.Y. One such a game, i.e., "Lexicon", uses fifty two letter cards, the object being, to be the first to play out a hand into a crossword layout. Another type word game, "Boggle", involves sixteen letter cubes shaken into a square. Players list words they find by going from letter to letter in any direction. A third type of word game, "Scrabble", involves letter tiles played on a board in crossword fashion. Still, a fourth type word game involves a game wherein whole words are used in the play. For example, in the game "Facts In Five", five categories are chosen from cards and five letter tiles are turned up. Each player, in five minutes, tries to write a word for each category, starting with each letter.
Other "games" disclosed in A Gamut of Games like that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,209 are in some way tied in with personality and analysis. These are not really games as such. They involve no competition even though played with others. For example, "Reunion" gives a person the opportunity to relate to a number of pictures, to imagine a happening, to use his intuition, or to recall a childhood memory.
Cards bearing pictorial illustrations are used by teachers to develop association and generalization skills. For example, there is shown in Teaching Resources, 1979 Catalog, at page 35, a flip chart book containing two rows of superposed pictures of common objects. The pictures in one row can be paired with any picture in the other row and compared by, e.g., a student, for likenesses and differences.
None of the games heretofore invented, or, any of the word and image stimuli of which I am aware, however, involve the actual telling of a story based on a randomly preselected number of graphic images. Games involving a story such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,379,871 do not require the players to tell a story based upon the graphic images in the cards involved. Instead, the players are required to play the cards involved in a certain pictorial sequence, that sequence itself telling the story and requiring no verbalization thereof by a player.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,891,209, story telling is involved; however, graphic images do not form the basis for the story telling. The basis for a story told involves words on a card.